Human to animal breastfeeding has been practiced in some different cultures during various time periods. The practice of breastfeeding or suckling between humans and other species occurred in both directions: women sometimes breastfed young animals, and animals were used to suckle babies and children. Animals were used as substitute wet nurses for infants, particularly after the rise of syphilis increased the health risks of wet nursing. Goats and donkeys were widely used to feed abandoned babies in foundling hospitals in 18th- and 19th-century Europe. Breastfeeding animals has also been practised, whether for perceived health reasons – such as to toughen the nipples and improve the flow of milk – or for religious and cultural purposes. A wide variety of animals have been used for this purpose, including puppies, kittens, piglets and monkeys.
Breastfeeding by animals of humans Terracotta feeding bottles surviving from the third millennium BC in Sumeria indicate that children who were not being breastfed were receiving animal milk, probably from cows. It is possible that some infants directly sucked lactating animals, which served as alternatives to wet nurses. Unless another lactating woman was available, a mother who lacked enough breast milk was likely to lose her child. To avert that possibility if a wet nurse was not available, an animal such as a donkey, cow, goat, sheep or dog could be employed. Suckling directly was preferable to milking an animal and giving the milk, as contamination by microbes during the milking process could lead to the infant contracting a deadly diarrheal disease. It was not until as late as the 1870s that stored animal milk became safe to drink due to the invention of pasteurisation and sterilisation. The Jewish Talmud permits children to suckle from even ritually unclean animals if the child's welfare demands it.
Mythology and stories
The suckling of infants by animals was a repeated theme in classical mythology. Most famously, twin brothers Romulus and Remus (the former founded Rome) were portrayed as having been raised by a she-wolf which suckled the infants, as depicted in the iconic image of the Capitoline Wolf. The Greek god Zeus was said to have been brought up by Amalthea, portrayed variously as a goat who suckled the god or as a nymph who brought him up on the milk of her goat. Similarly, Telephus, the son of the demigod Heracles, was suckled by a deer. Several famous ancient historical figures were claimed to have been suckled by animals; Cyrus I of Persia was said to have been suckled by a dog, while mares supposedly suckled Croesus, Xerxes and Lysimachus. In reality, though, such stories probably owed more to myth-making about such prominent figures, as they were used as evidence of their future greatness. A 12th century novel from Al-Andalus, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, has the title character growing up in isolation on a tropical island, fed and raised by an antelope. The story reached Europe in a Latin translation, and then in 1708 an English edition. Stories of abandoned children being brought up by animal mothers such as she-wolves and bears were widespread in Europe from the Middle Ages and into modern times. One real-life case was that of Peter the Wild Boy, found in northern Germany in 1724. His coarse, curly hair was attributed to his being (supposedly) suckled by a bear, based on the premise that characteristics of the animal foster mother had been transmitted to him via her milk. (It is now thought he had Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, a condition unidentified until 1978.)
Perceived effect on character The belief that animal characteristics could be transmitted via milk was widely held; the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus thought that being suckled by lionesses conferred great courage. Goats were thought to transmit a libidinous character and some preferred to employ donkeys as wet nurses instead, as they were thought to be more moral animals. In modern Egypt, though, donkeys were disfavoured as wet nurses as it was thought that a child suckled on donkeys' milk would acquire the animal's stupidity and obstinacy. Human milk was thought to transmit character traits as well; in 19th century France a law was proposed to ban disreputable mothers from nursing their own children so that their immoral traits would not be transmitted via their milk.
Use of goats and other animals
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